


the time for sleep (is now)

by Petr1chor



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Keith (Voltron) Needs a Hug, M/M, One Shot, Pining Keith (Voltron), Talk about your feelings, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:21:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27894508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Petr1chor/pseuds/Petr1chor
Summary: Keith gets injured on a Blades mission and Red takes Lance to him.xxx“Keith?” hallucination-Lance cried, “Whoa you don’t look good at all.”Keith looked at him and laughed. Even his hallucination was being mean to him.“Oh man, are you hurt? Okay okay, let’s take you back okay? Coran will patch you right up,” he was right beside him now, hands fluttering like he didn’t know where to put them.He was in his sleep clothes, hair all messed up. Keith drew in a long, shaking breath, and for once in his life he allowed himself to look. Lance wasn’t really here. There was no one to notice how long his eyes lingered. He drank him in. Wide, worried eyes.“You’re worried about me,” his voice came out soft and confused, voice cracking.xxxxThis is a prompt fill that I did on tumblr. Enjoy.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 149





	the time for sleep (is now)

**Author's Note:**

> This a short little thing that i posted on tumblr and got a nice response so here you go!

Keith pressed his hand to his to his stomach and tried to make himself as small as possible. He had not gotten a good look at the thing that pierced through his armor, but he hoped it did not have venom.

The wound was bleeding sluggishly and in the dark it looked like tar. He could taste blood in the back of his throat.

_This is it_ , he thought idly, _I am going to die alone._

It would, perhaps, be scarier if he had not been so frightfully lonely for so long that it clung to him like a second skin.

He opened his eyes to a familiar sound, he wasn’t sure when he had shut them.

_Red?_

He could see the lion land in the distance. It couldn’t be. He thought to himself that it was a little pathetic that he was hallucinating his lion in his last moments. Not even a person.

_Not your lion_ , a voice in his head said and he laughed. It was a small, brittle thing.

He saw a familiar figure rushing towards him.

“Oh this even more pathetic,” Keith mumbled.

“Keith?” hallucination-Lance cried, “Whoa you don’t look good at all.”

Keith looked at him and laughed. Even his hallucination was being mean to him.

“Oh man, are you hurt? Okay okay, let’s take you back okay? Coran will patch you right up,” he was right beside him now, hands fluttering like he didn’t know where to put them.

He was in his sleep clothes, hair all messed up. Keith drew in a long, shaking breath, and for once in his life he allowed himself to look. Lance wasn’t really here. There was no one to notice how long his eyes lingered. He drank him in. Wide, worried eyes.

“You’re worried about me,” his voice came out soft and confused, voice cracking.

“Oh, good. You didn’t say anything for a while and I got a little concerned. Let’s get you on Red, and you’re gonna be fine.”

Keith’s vision was swimming, darkening around the edges. Lance was standing back up, and Keith felt a rock set in his gut. He didn’t want to die alone, he didn’t want Lance to leave.

He really wanted to touch his hair. He reached out, and his hand loosely wrapped around a wrist.

“Don’t go,” he remembered saying, and then the ground below him was gone.

Xxxx

Keith hated how he felt when he got out of a pod. There was this odd, tingling feeling that clung to him each time it happened. Even without opening his eyes he knew where he was. He internally groaned as he realized Lance had not been a hallucination at all. He stretched until he felt his back settle into place and tried not to meet Allura’s very concerned eyes.

“You gave us quite the scare, Keith.”

“Uh, hello, princess. I didn’t mean to.”

“Of course you didn’t. None of us would have had any idea what had happened if Red had not gone berserk and brought Lance to you.”

Keith flinched at the name. He pushed down the urge to ask her where he was.

“He was beside himself with worry. You must be more careful Keith, especially since none of us are around to support you.”

Keith rubbed the back of his neck and nodded.

“Uh,” he began, “What about my armor?”

“Ruined, I’m afraid. But there are still some clothes you left behind here. Why don’t you go get changed and find Hunk in the kitchen? They’ve all been itching to see you.”

xxxx

It had been too much, the warmth of it all. Pidge ha hugged him, which was odd for her, and he remembered that he thought he was going to die, so they probably had too. Hunk had stuck a ladle in his mouth before he knew what was happening. He kept his eyes trained on the two, but not even blindness could keep him from feeling Lance’s searing gaze. He had missed this more than he allowed himself to.

He pressed his head back against the wall and squeezed his eyes shut. He had his things. He had contacted Kolivan. Everything was ready for him to leave.

He thought of Allura’s steady presence, of Hunk’s warmth and Pidge’s smile. He thought of how Coran treated him like family right away. He thought of Shiro.

He thought of the terrified look on Lance’s face when he thought he was going to die.

_I don’t want to go_ , he thought to himself. Yet another thought he would never say out loud.

“Running away?”

Keith’s eyes shot open at that. No, he couldn’t deal with this right now.

“I’m not running away.”

“Sure looks like it,” Lance was smiling, but it wasn’t the smile Keith so often found himself dazzled by. This was bitter caricature of a smile, and Keith hated it.

“I have to go,” he met his eyes dead on for the first time since he had woken up.

“Do you?” the smile melted of his face, his eyes softening.

Keith no longer wanted to look at him. He had stepped closer.

“You don’t have to go anywhere. You belong here, with us, where all of us can look after each other. They were just going to leave you there to die!” His voice had grown hysterical.

“The mission comes first,” Keith said, even though he knew that was weak at best.

Lance spun around and ran his hand through his hair manically.

“I don’t care about the mission!”

He had a sort of intensity in his eyes that Keith had never seen before.

“We need you here, Keith”

“You don’t,” he replied and Lance shut his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Listen to me,” he put his hand on Keith’s elbow and Keith wondered how many times he was going to feel like he was dying, “Listen to me, you are important to us. We care about you. We want you around, and we want you safe.”

Lance’s eyes had that look again, the one he had when he saw his right before passing out.

“Red misses you terribly. We’ll figure something out. We’ll co-pilot. I’ll step down. Just stay, please.”

His voice was terribly soft and Keith could feel prickling behind his eyes. Lance slid his hand gently down his arm and tangled their fingers together. Keith made a terrible choked off sound and looked away. He could feel the hot tears sliding down his cheeks.

“Stay with me,” Lance whispered.

“Okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! 
> 
> Kudos, Comment, Share :)


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